In today's article from the "Lawyer on the Farm" series, we will present an interesting solution for farmers who are looking to save money and want to increase the profitability of their investments in renewable energy sources, and at the same time can make a significant contribution to the development of rural and rural-urban areas.
The Polish energy sector is facing rising energy prices, which are the result of, among other things, the European Union's energy and climate policy, the high costs of energy production and distribution, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. We believe that energy cooperatives are an excellent way to effectively address these challenges while also developing community energy.
The goal of energy cooperatives is to integrate and unite farmers, local government units, and local entrepreneurs, and to build or connect existing renewable energy installations using available tools. Pursuant to the Act of 20 February 2015 on Renewable Energy Sources (hereinafter referred to as the " RES Act "), energy cooperatives operate in the production of energy, biogas, and heat in renewable energy installations, and to balance their demand solely for their own needs.
We would like to emphasize that, pursuant to the Renewable Energy Sources Act, energy cooperatives may operate within the area of a single electricity distribution system operator or a gas or heating distribution network, supplying electricity, biogas, agricultural biogas, biomethane or heat to producers and consumers who are members of that cooperative, whose installations are connected to the network of a given operator or to a given heating network.
However, before a cooperative can begin operations, it must be registered. To register a cooperative, it must first: (i) gather at least 10 members (individuals) or 3 members (legal entities), (ii) create a cooperative statute, (iii) elect the cooperative's governing bodies from among its members, (iv) submit an application to enter the cooperative into the National Court Register, (v) after entering the energy cooperative into the National Court Register, it must be registered on the list of energy cooperatives maintained by the Director General of the National Support Center for Agriculture.
Establishing energy cooperatives offers many benefits, as cooperative members can operate across multiple municipalities, yet there will be no problem transporting the generated energy, which will ultimately be fed into the grid. Furthermore, regulations do not prohibit a single cooperative from including municipalities, private entrepreneurs, and groups of individual farmers as members. This arrangement allows an energy cooperative to unite diverse interests with two key goals in mind: rural development and Poland's energy transformation.
We also emphasize that the energy cooperative is exempt from many fees: (i) the renewable energy fee, (ii) the capacity fee, (iii) the cogeneration fee, (iv) the variable transmission fee, and (v) excise tax (for renewable energy investments up to 1 MW). Importantly, the absence of the transmission fee means that cooperative members do not have to pay for the transmission of produced energy. We estimate that this allows individual farmers who own their own renewable energy installation and join an energy cooperative to save approximately 35%.
An energy cooperative is certainly an excellent solution for a group of farmers who have decided to invest in renewable energy sources. By joining forces and registering the cooperative, they can count on numerous exemptions and reliefs, and at the same time, investing in renewable energy sources becomes even more profitable because all costs are shared among the cooperative members.
In our opinion, registering energy cooperatives is not only a great idea for savings, independence and greater profitability of individual investments in renewable energy sources, because the development of energy cooperatives primarily means increasing the energy security of the region, improving the environment, creating jobs and increasing the competitiveness and investment attractiveness of rural areas.
We would like to emphasize that the registration and operation of an energy cooperative is regulated by numerous acts, and the registration process itself requires extraordinary accuracy and meticulousness, and therefore we encourage you to take advantage of the professional legal assistance offered by our Law Firm.
In the next articles, which we invite you to read now, we will continue the topic of Renewable Energy Sources!
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of September 19, 2024
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